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Hey all-

I know there's a lot of members in the Chicagoland area on the forum, so I thought I'd ask:

I've seen most of the common attractions/sites, and I have a Morning/Afternoon on Thursday to find something to do.

Any Suggestions???

Thanks!

RH77

Well, to bump the thread, I'll explain my visit...

My wife has been invited to be an audience member of the Oprah Winfrey show. During that time, I'm on my own and will have a rental car (normally I'd use the EL, but we need point-to-point transpo.)

In the meantime, I have a car and a few hours of time.

I have a few ideas -- visit Wayne at work, or TBaleno??? JK :D

I might try to hypermile the rental car and drive around....

RH77

I'm not sure how long it takes to get from down town to my work but I'd be willing to meet you for lunch or something. My lunch hour is flexible in both time and length so it should be easy to fit in. What day would it be?

Maybe if Wayne has the day off we could all get together for lunch.

Hi Rick:

___I sent you a relatively long PM with my schedule over the next 48 hours. It is a bit to tight for a Thursday afternoon meeting downtown as I am in the middle of 30 days of 12 hour nights not including travel time. I hope you find it useful?

___In either case, if you are ever in the Chicago area with a bit more advanced notice and I am not working, I would be honored to meet up with you. I drag Tom out to Maggiano’s once every 2 or 3 months and I bet you would like it as well!

___With your wife being a part of the Oprah Show, you might just like to hang out downtown and walk through Millennium Park. Bring along warm and water resistant outdoor clothing and do not forget to bring your digital camera! You should have the entire park to yourself given the weather (high probability for rain) and lower temps temps (40’s) expected for Thursday. The Cloud Gate (otherwise known as the Bean) should allow some fantastic pics with nobody around!

___The following might help you figure out how to spend a few hours in downtown if that is where you will be stuck for the afternoon on your own?

http://www.millenniumpark.org/

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Thanks to Wayne for the Millenium Park idea! I had the place to myself and got some great pics. I cruised around downtown (it had just started to rain -- slick streets. A CTA bus turned in front of me in an intersection and I had to do a full ABS brake stop -- haven't had that to do that for a long time).

I've shared the pictures: Take a look at a grey Chicago Afternoon (better than it sounds). (http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=7u5s10t.3vivr6qd&x=0&y=-uni4ht)

Regarding the car, I rented a 2006 Chevy Impala 2LT with the 3.9L pushrod V-6. It had leather seats and butt warmers, but crappy FE: 11.2 to be exact. Luckily it was only 50 miles. I've rented the Impala with the 3.5L six (base) and have achieved around 30 mpg in mixed driving (got stuck in gridlock on I-55). It's the same engine found the Malibu that attributes the great mileage that it gets (usually 32 in mixed driving). For 2007, the 3.9L is getting cylinder deactivation for highway cruise. I don't really think it would've helped the city driving. Our other choices were convertibles (a beetle and a sebring), but with 3 people and luggage, the Imp was the only choice. The Malibu is a great choice if renting GM. Ford = Focus, and DMX = Sebring/Stratus 4-cyl. The Camry is the absolute best rental 2006 and 2007 (as is the Corolla). Avoid the Nissans as they disappoint with FE (the Sentra is decent but old-school).

The trick - rent the smallest car/smallest engine available for your needs.

RH77

Hi Rick:

___Beautiful pics of Millenium park, Meigs, and even one of Wrigley! I hope you enjoyed your day in and around downtown Chicago. I actually enjoyed that pic of the Hancock in the mist with the treed walkway as a guide best.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Very nice photos Rick! We were there a couple years ago at a lovely summer evening concert in that park and walked through a lot of it. I also remember a nice lunch at the famous Berghoff restaurant about a block away. For some reason I don't recall the bean but do remember the face fountain fondly. And oh yeah the pizza there was great too. Wish I could find pizza like that over here.

That's funny -- we actually had a late dinner at the Berghoff Wednesday night. We love German food (and beer) so since it was a block from the hotel, we had to stop in.

I did enjoy my time there -- I've been probably 10 times before for fun or work (not counting O'hare :rolleyes:) and actually had time to "stop and smell the roses" this time. Every trip there has been memorable.

-RH77

Very nice photos Rick! We were there a couple years ago at a lovely summer evening concert in that park and walked through a lot of it. I also remember a nice lunch at the famous Berghoff restaurant about a block away. For some reason I don't recall the bean but do remember the face fountain fondly. And oh yeah the pizza there was great too. Wish I could find pizza like that over here.

I'm heading to Chicago tomorrow. For work. I've been up a couple times in the last two months. The last trip was in my Insight. On the trip from Indy to Chicago, I got 82.3mpg, doing a fair amount of drafting. I had a few different stops to make in the city, and that brought me down to around 78 I think. On the way back I was a little more focused on getting home and a little less focused on FE- 79.1mpg for the round trip.

I don't expect to do quite that well tomorrow, now that it is colder. We'll see.

By the way, there's a silver Insight that has been parked outside DeVry's Chicago campus the last two times I was there. Anybody here? I see so few Insights around Indy these days, but there are quite a few in Chicago. Which reminds me, I saw a DeLorean the other day. :D One of the very few cars I see less frequently than the Insight.


PS: estimated miles: 440. mileage reimbursement rate: 42 cents a mile. ;)

PPS: It just occurred to me that this thread is titled "Hypermiling while on Vacation" and here I am talking about work trips. I'm a tool.

Hi Fenrir:

___I think you will enjoy Chicago tomorrow as it is supposed to be in the high 40’s and sunny all afternoon.

___And about that mileage reimbursement … Nothing can touch what you will earn while driving your Insight :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne